Japanese Judge Rules Samsung Didn’t Infringe Apple’s Patent

SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg via Getty Images(TOKYO) -- A week after Samsung was ordered to pay over $1 billion to Apple for copyright infringement in the U.S., a decision on Friday in a similar, but much smaller, case in Japan didn't end in Apple's favor.

Apple sued Samsung in Japan for $1.3 million in damages last year, claiming Samsung's smart phones and tablet computers infringed a patent on an Apple invention that synced up the devices with servers.

But on Friday, the Japanese judge ruled in favor of Samsung, saying the South Korean company did nothing wrong.

Samsung welcomed the Tokyo court's decision, saying in a statement Friday that it "confirmed our long-held position that our products do not infringe Apple's intellectual property."